WWI - The war in the air

[Stearmen]

Another one of my all time favorites, the Morane-Saulnier Type N Bullet. To solve the problem of shooting through the propeller, they clamped wedges onto the propeller, so the bullets would ricochet, hopefully away from the pilot! Roland Garros shot down at least four planes in this manner. Their were several aces. I can't imagine fighting in one of those.

 

[Smithy]

Stearmen, I reckon there would have been a lot of pilots less than impressed with the bullet deflection system. Mr Constantinescu's invention would have been very warmly received subsequently

 

[Stearmen]

Stearmen, I reckon there would have been a lot of pilots less than impressed with the bullet deflection system. Mr Constantinescu's invention would have been very warmly received subsequently

Although, France, Great Britain, and Russia used them, and had no shortage of volunteers. There was a Russian pilot, that used a grappling hook to snag the German airplanes. He downed several in this manner.

 

[Stearmen]

This is a pretty good book. I did not know that the Fe2s were still a plane to not take lightly when attacking them. Early fighters are very interesting, hard to believe you could get anyone to go up in them, let alone to dog fight!

 

[Chas]

My mother grew up on a farm in Cloverdale, British Columbia and her neighbours were Collishaw family. For some years they flew aircraft from a makeshift runway on their farm (well before there was Transport Canada) and according to mum bootleggers from Seattle would come to call and Ray sold them hooch. It's possible- not confirmed, but possible.

I also had the oppurtunity to have a look at a fellow's RFC tunic; it was his Great-Uncle's tunic and he was a confirmed victim of Manfred von Richtofen. I tried to get him to sell it to me but he donated it to a museum instead; Canadian War Museum, IIRC.

 

[tuco1963]

In a strange way, this had the most to do with my fascination of WWI aviation! [video=youtube;D5k9MdsvZm8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5k9MdsvZm8[/video]

i agree 100 % it lead me to read flying aces of ww1 and this was third grade in 1971

 

[DNO]

My mother grew up on a farm in Cloverdale, British Columbia and her neighbours were Collishaw family. For some years they flew aircraft from a makeshift runway on their farm (well before there was Transport Canada) and according to mum bootleggers from Seattle would come to call and Ray sold them hooch. It's possible- not confirmed, but possible.

I also had the oppurtunity to have a look at a fellow's RFC tunic; it was his Great-Uncle's tunic and he was a confirmed victim of Manfred von Richtofen. I tried to get him to sell it to me but he donated it to a museum instead; Canadian War Museum, IIRC.

Collishaw always struck me as being one of the most interesting of the WWI aces. Apparently he was quite happy to give credit for aircraft he downed to new pilots in order to boost their confidence. Despite this, he ended the war with 60 downed aircraft plus 2 more in the Russian Civil War (and a couple of trains and a patrol boat, apparently).

 

[Lee Hutch]

Forgive me if it has been mentioned in earlier posts, but has anyone read the RFC Trilogy of novels by Derek Robinson? (War Story, Hornet's Sting, Goshawk Squadron) If you haven't they are excellent. He has a really funny writing style that captures a lot of the back and forth banter between the pilots. You almost have to read them a couple of times to pick up everything. He has another book out called "A Splendid Little War" which concerns some British pilots fighting on the side of the White Army during the Russian Civil War. I just received my copy a couple of days back but I haven't read it yet. Anyway, I just thought I'd throw that out there is any of you read fiction about this time period.

 

[Stand By]

I was at the Canadian Air Force Museum in Ottawa a couple of summers back and it was a great exhibit. I got some great photos of some interesting stuff in there (a rare Heinkel He-162 plus a nice Me-163 and a Me-109 in MTO livery to name but three) - and I got these shots of a A.E.G. G.IV - it was a war prize and apparently the Germans keep asking for it back ... asking in vain.
Nice lozenge camouflage.



I apologise for not posting these until today. My digital camera had died and I grabbed a camera from work to take with me instead - an ancient digital camera (2002) with a memory card that's actually more of a memory slab. It's taken me a while to find a proper card reader for it!

 

[Stearmen]

Actually, that's a AEG G.IV bomber. Very nice, didn't even know one existed. I will have to get up there now.

 

[Stand By]

Corrected - thanks Stearman! My mistake. Good catch, Sir!
And the tour guide said it was taken as a war prize and the only one left - and I just looked it up on Wikipedia - and it's true!

From Wikipedia: "A single example (number 574/18) is preserved at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum. This example is significant not only as the only one of its kind in existence, but as the only preserved German, twin-engined combat aircraft from World War 1.[8] The aircraft was brought to Canada in 1919 as a war trophy. It has been at the museum since 1970."

A rare bird indeed! No wonder the Germans want it back!
(Too bad!)

 

[Smithy]

Haven't posted here in this thread in donkeys but thought that some members might enjoy this link, a rather good doco about McCudden and Mannock:

Hope members enjoy it as much as I did.

 

[DNO]

Haven't posted here in this thread in donkeys but thought that some members might enjoy this link, a rather good doco about McCudden and Mannock:

Hope members enjoy it as much as I did.

Thanks for posting Smithy...and for resurrecting this thread. I had totally forgotten about it! I just finished reading Duncan Grinnell-Milne's 'Wind in the Wires' and am in the process of reading Cecil Lewis' 'Sagittarius Rising'. I was just looking over old posts and you're bang on about the Australian history. All of the volumes in their WW1 history totally outclass any others, in my opinion. A tremendous work. In the case of Canada, only one volume of the CEF's history was published...it got mired down in politics and was abandoned. Fortunately, at least for the RCAF, there has been a three volume history of the air force published in recent years...still not as readable as the Australian stuff though.

I've developed an interest recently in the experiences of two seater crews but there really isn't much around. For years I've had a WW1 medal pair to a Canadian lieutenant who served in the RFC/RAF but it wasn't until recently that I was finally able to find out anything about him. He served as an RE-8 pilot from June 1917 to April 1918...had two crashes due to engine failure but never 'downed'.

 

[Smithy]

Hi DNO, you reminded me of G-M's book, been meaning to pick that up for awhile now and especially seeing as Grub Street republished it a couple of years back - must trundle off to Amazon and order it!

Speaking of books, I literally got this in the post today:

I think I've mentioned Alex Revell's books in this thread previously, and this one is no exception. The level of research is unsurpassed. If you have even a passing interest in Mac pick this up.

BTW "Sagittarius Rising" is simply a classic!

 

[Jayessgee]

I pretty much have something about WWI or WWII aviation (it was called aviation with the "a"s sounding as in "have" back then you know.) going all the time. (I sometimes read two or three books at a time.) Although, I confess much of my reading interest at the moment is tied to WWII US submarine history.* But, I find those Osprey books dedicated to groups or squadrons fascinating. Good background for deeper or other related reading. nnnnnnnnnnnnn
That "Sagittarius Rising" Is on my short 'wish list.' I thoroughly enjoyed "Ace of the Iron Cross" by Udet. Another interesting read was "High Adventure A Narrative of Air Fighting in France" by James Norman Hall. It was not really much about air fighting as much as it was about the things in war that a soldier had rather remembered. But, as a companion to the fictional "Falcons of France" by Nordhoff and Hall, it is a must read. I had long wondered how much of himself Hall put into that book (Falcons) well, the answer is, a lot! His aircraft actually DID receive a direct hit from a German anti-aircraft gun. However, unlike his fictional character, the real intrepid pilot seemed to view captivity as an opportunity to catch up on his reading (and live through the war one rather suspects but, who can blame him?)
Yet another fascinating read are two books about Jasta 11. "Jagd in Flanderns Himmel" by von Richthofen's adjutant Bodenschatz (English translations available as "Hunting with Richthofen- the Bodenschatz diaries). This one is not what you would call light reading. They are basically the unit's "war diaries" but if facts interest you, this is fascinating. Another is von Richthofen's auto biography "Der Rot Flieger" or the Red Fighter Pilot. One has to wonder how much of that he actually wrote or whether he even wrote any of it at all. One thing that was a fascinating fact- y'all remember a recent WWI film in which all the (cgi) German planes were red? Oh howe I sneered at that one. While clearly still not right, von Richthofen noted that when they started targeting his airplane, he had his whole unit's aircraft all painted red! So at least for a time, some segments of that film could actually be right.

Speaking of films. I don't anything in this line beats "Wings." It even had a few shots of original WWI a/c. Well, I've rambled on about enough.

* oh! This. I have been distracted by submarine warfare of late from discovering on You Tube (watch it on my TV) an old series hosted by Admiral Thomas Dykers (ret.) called Silent service. Each episode is only 26 minutes and relatively limited in scope but fascinating. I have also been deeply into O'kanes "Clear the Bridge." A great companion to his earlier work of his time on Wahoo.

But, back to the topic of flying, albeit WWII, There are also the old episodes of "12 o'Clock high." Gotta watch the settings. I usually keep them set on restricted to avoid the smut (Not 100% effective) but on occasions it has made 12 o'Clock high, Combat! and some other war related material unavailable. It isn't consistent about that either. .

 

[Smithy]

Hi Jayessgee,

Thanks for the book recommendations and I agree "Wings" is a great series, one which gets forgotten about.

As you've seen there's one or two of us round these parts who are interested in the first air war so welcome!

Tim

 

[Smithy]

Absolutely wonderful interview with Cecil Lewis, RFC pilot, ace and author of the brilliant WWI flying memoir "Sagittarius Rising"...